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Resistance to change is natural. New ideas are rejected at first because they threaten familiarity. I find it safe (read comforting) to say that revolutionary ideas have suffered more rejections than I have, or so I hope. I remember one of my teachers telling me that when humans first set foot on the moon, the maulvis declared that any Muslim who’d believe this would automatically have their nikkah’s annulled. Upon hearing this I was ashamed of the mediocre nature of my own rebellions. The rest of this rant should go in my journal so I’ll walk you straight to the reason why I’m here.

One fine morning while I was having tea, a friend of mine introduced me to the idea of electronic wedding cards. As I drank my tea, I carefully constructed an elaborate offensive speech to criticize her for no reason because how dare she thinks out of the box. Which I did once she was done, all the while eating fries that were resting on a plate covered with an old wedding card (they’re great oil absorbents).

I did what most people do, criticized without fully understanding, and became the thing I hate even if it was for a little while. That plate of French fries mocked me back to my rational self which is why I’m here; to debunk the irrational importance of paper wedding cards. There are so many things that are wrong with the concept and I don’t know where to start but here we go.

Card nahi tou shaadi nahi. If your parents have been invited to a wedding over the phone, I know no one attended it. If they didn’t send a card they’ve disrespected you and they didn’t really want you to come. No, that’s not me, that’s the most common objection that people have. And everything’s wrong with it.

Most of the wedding cards we get end up getting wasted or being used for purposes they weren’t intended for (please refer to French fries). Most of them end up in the garbage and there go thousands of rupees and maybe even more. In. The. Dust bin. It’s a waste of money, paper, trees, resources, everything. Everything that can easily be utilized for something more important.

Another objection that people have is related to internet access. Most people argue that with so many people barely making a meal a day, an e-card is useless. Well, so is a paper card because weddings are the last thing on these people’s mind and wedding cards are of no use to them. Money wasted on such cards could easily be used to help such people and here I’d like to suggest a solution that some smart, other worldly presence whispered in my ear; invitation gift boxes. These boxes could include anything from clothes to food items to anything you think could make them happy, just not paper cards. You’re getting married: They should be getting something too. It’s only fair.

Online cards solve so many problems the most important one being that everyone gets to be in the RSVP section. Remember that one time when your name wasn’t there but phupho ki beti was? Yeah, I know but no more. You don’t want jealousy to be a guest at the wedding and you definitely don’t want family rivalries boiling in front of your new in-laws. Not until the papers are signed. It doesn’t end here though. Not only do these cards save money and resources, but they make everything cooler and more convenient. You get all the details about the event as well as the wedding pictures all in one place. Remember that one time when you got the shaadi pictures after you were dead? Yeah, no more of that too.

I understand that no change happens overnight, as much as I’d like it too, but I also know that it has to start somewhere. To ease your search have a look at the super cool start-up by two young entrepreneurs of the Lahore School of Economics who deal in designing Wedding Invitations in a budgeted environmental friendly way – an idea which is being introduced for the first time in Pakistan. Here is a sample website based wedding invite to save your money and paper: sample.weddingwhizz.net

• It’s cost-effective
• Environmentally friendly: why waste paper? ?
• More durable: at least people won’t be throwing it in the dustbin ?
• Has super cool features including your countdown, GPS map, gallery, and other magical stuff
• Domain of the website will be in the name of the bride & groom like AyeshaWedsAli.com

It is about time that we start making smart decisions about weddings. It could start with an e-card and you never know we might end up making smart life partner choices as well. Jokes apart, I think it’s high time we started valuing the things that we have before the future got dark and full of terrors.